Happily Ever After Sign

Last summer (pre-blogging days) I made the cutest sign for a friends wedding. I loved the simple phrase and how easy it was to make. I would love to show it to you....but I forgot to take a picture!
Ugh! So.....

I made another one! I actually made it because I wanted one...and I made it totally different, but I love how it turned out.

I feel like it should be surrounded by family pictures in a collage, that is after all, what happily ever after is about...FAMILY! Not only do I have an amazing husband who is so sweet and puts up with me, but I also have the six best children in the world, and I couldn't be more blessed!

Ok, sorry for getting all sappy....

Lets see how I banged out this fun sign in less than two hours.

I found a piece of scrap wood in my shed, 1/4 in ply wood, and cut it to just bigger than my stencil. Then I followed the steps in the above pictures. I used Rust-o-leum's Dark Walnut stain, one coat.

When the paint was still wet I removed the stencil. If you look closely you will notice it was not perfect, the paint had bled through in several places. I knew this would happen....

But I didn't care! Why?

Well because: Number 1, I was going to shadow the letters....

This made a difference in covering up some of the paint that bled through. If you will notice I shadowed all the words in black paint, and at the last minute I decided to do "happily" in yellow.

And reason number 2, I was going to distress the sign, and then you wouldn't even notice...

To complement my yellow shadowing I got a scrap of yellow fabric and tore it to get a frayed look. Then I tied a knot in the middle and hot glued the fabric to the back of the board! (note: if you use a heavy board you may need extra support, this board was super light)

I sanded it down really well and....DONE! A quick nap time project that really makes me happy!

It makes a great wedding gift, or even could be use as wedding decor! But, it will also look great in my bedroom, which is where it is going to live.

Do you see the snow? Apparently Colorado decided that March was the month to dump it...oh, how I long for SPRING!

I so love this!! Ok first off I want to say that you are amazing! I thought that you had six little ones but I wasn't sure! The fact that you can bang out any project is inspiring to me! You rock! I come from a family of 6 kids so I know how busy it is! This sign is perfect...I will have to do something like this...maybe for my garden?!??!? Great work friend!!!!

Great sign. I love the look. Please consider coming over to The Patriotic Pam and linking this up at my weekend link party. I know many of my readers that would love to see this tutorial. Pam @ The Patriotic Pam

LOVE this sign Mindi! you did a great job my friend. What is the overall size? I've sort of rushed through... I read the opening paragraph... almost made me tear up... but then I just sort of hit the highlights, so if you said how big, forgive me, k? catching you!gailps no-reply blogger here, so you'll have to input my email addy to answer.... sorry.